If you want to explain the difference between a small liberal arts college (e.g., Williams) and a larger liberal arts university (e.g, Harvard or Princeton) in Spanish, what is the language for a small college? I know only the word “universidad.” Is there an equivalent for a small college?
You may simply have to use the term “liberal arts college”. It’s a pretty American concept with probably the vast majority of LACs in the world in the US, some liberal arts unis in Canada, a few LACs in Asia (mostly Japan) emulating LACs in the US due to American influence, tiny 2-major Bard Berlin in Europe, and university colleges in the Netherlands embracing the spirit of LACs.
I know of no LACs in Latin America.
This is really going to fall under the heading of “It depends.” Different countries will use different terms, but in general there is no distinction, as there is in the US, between college and university as a free-standing institution. So you would still need to provide some explanation to a user who does not know what an LAC is. So you could say “universidad de artes liberales” or “Liberal Arts College” or “College” or “Instituto” but you’ll still probably need to explain what that means. The one distinction that most Spanish speakers will make is that a college as a subset of a university would be a “facultad.”
Since universidad may be effectively synonymous with college in Spanish communication, you might accurately be able to refer to an LAC as some variant of un universidad con no los alumnos de postgrado.
We don’t have LACs as such in Spain. We do have public and private universities. Among the private universities, there are a handful of well known universities with good reputations, the others tend to be lesser options relative to public universities. You would have to use “universidad privada” (unless it’s a state LAC) then kind of explain tthe essence of what is different about a LAC.
This is what the College Board has to say to Spanish speaking parents about LACs:
“Liberal Arts Colleges (Universidades de artes liberales)
Estas universidades ofrecen amplios temarios de las llamadas artes liberales, que incluyen áreas como literatura, historia, idiomas, matemáticas y ciencias de la vida. La mayoría son privadas y ofrecen programas de cuatros años que culminan con un título de licenciatura (bachelor’s degree). Estas universidades pueden preparar a los estudiantes para una variedad de estudios universitarios o solo para posgrados.”
The distinction is much more cultural than it is linguistic, so describing the difference would depend a good deal on the demographics of your intended Spanish-speaking audience. Do you want to share more details?
^ Costa Rican.
Thank you all for the suggestions!
And not to plug another website, but the forum over at wordreference is great for questions like these.